Podcasts · History · Society & Culture

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers, Greg Young

300 episodes

The tides of American history flow through the streets of New York City — from the huddled masses on Ellis Island to the sleazy theaters of 1970s Times Square. Greg and Tom explore more than 400 years of action-packed stories, featuring both classic and forgotten figures who have shaped the world.

Episodes page 2 of 6

  1. History Daily: Pirate Tales!

    · 33 min

    We love the podcast History Daily, a co-production from award winning podcasters Airship and Noiser, so we're presenting two episodes with a very similar theme -- pirates! -- July 6, 1699. The arrest of Captain…

  2. #467 The Brooklyn Theatre Fire: The Forgotten Gilded Age Tragedy

    · 49 min

    On the evening of December 5, 1876, the glorious Brooklyn Theatre caught fire, trapping its audience in a nightmare of flame and smoke. The theater sat near Brooklyn City Hall (today's Brooklyn Borough Hall), and the…

  3. #466 Pete's Tavern and McSorley's Old Ale House

    · 1 h 24 min

    The ultimate bar crawl of Old New York continues through a survey of classic bars and taverns that trace their origins from the 1850s through the 1880s. And this time we're recording within two of America's most…

  4. #465 The Oldest Bars in New York City

    · 1 h 20 min

    We’ve put together the ultimate New York City historic bar crawl, a celebration of the city’s old taverns, pubs, and ale houses with 18th- and 19th-century connections. And along the way, you’ll learn so much about the…

  5. #464 New York: The City of Oysters

    · 1 h 24 min

    Once upon a time New York City oysters were not only plentiful and healthy in the harbor, they were an everyday, common food source. The original fast food! For that reason, the oyster could be an official New York…

  6. #463 Gilded Age Golden Girls (Live At City Winery)

    · 1 h 27 min

    A special presentation of our live show Bowery Boys History Live, recorded at City Winery, July 2, 2025 Bowery Boys History Live is a storytelling cabaret of all-true tales and spellbinding secrets from the past,…

  7. Spirits Podcast: Urban Legends with Greg Young

    · 54 min

    Ready for a little summertime spookfest? This week we're thrilled to present to you a podcast appearance Greg made back in April on the Spirits Podcast. Hosted by Amanda McLoughlin and Julia Schifini, the Spirits…

  8. #462 The Jersey Shore Shark Attacks of 1916

    · 49 min

    TERROR ON THE BEACH! Seaside resorts from Cape May, New Jersey, to Montauk, Long Island, were paralyzed in fear during the summer of 1916. Not because of the threat of lurking German U-boats and saboteurs. But because…

  9. The Gilded Age Mansions of Fifth Avenue

    · 1 h 29 min

    At the heart of New York’s Gilded Age — the late 19th-century era of unprecedented American wealth and excess — were families with the names Astor, Waldorf, Schermerhorn, and Vanderbilt, alongside power players like…

  10. #461 The Story of Inwood and Marble Hill

    · 1 h 36 min

    People who live in Inwood know how truly special it is. Manhattan's northernmost neighborhood (aside from Marble Hill) feels like it's outside of the city -- and in some places, even outside of time and space. Unlike…

  11. Children of the Gilded Age

    · 50 min

    The children of the Gilded Age were seen but not heard. Until now! Listener favorite Esther Crain, author and creator of Ephemeral New York joins The Gilded Gentleman for a look at the world of children during the…

  12. #460 The Brooklyn Museum and the Birth of a New City

    · 52 min

    While you may know the Brooklyn Museum for its wildly popular cutting-edge exhibitions, the borough's premier art institution can actually trace its origins back to a more rustic era -- and to the birth of the city of…

  13. #459 Moses vs. Bard: The Battle for Castle Clinton

    · 1 h 10 min

    In 1939, Robert Moses sprung his latest project upon the world -- the Brooklyn-Battery Bridge, connecting the tip of Manhattan to the Brooklyn waterfront, slicing through New York Harbor just to the north of Governor's…

  14. The Trial of John Peter Zenger (Rewind)

    · 48 min

    A long, long time ago in New York — in the 1730s, back when the city was a holding of the British, with a little over 10,000 inhabitants — a German printer named John Peter Zenger decided to print a four-page newspaper…

  15. #458 Parkways and the Transformation of Brooklyn

    · 56 min

    When Prospect Park was first opened to the public in the late 1860s, the City of Brooklyn was proud to claim a landmark as beautiful and as peaceful as New York’s Central Park. But the superstar landscape designers —…

  16. #457 FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD

    · 1 h 00 min

    On October 29, 1975, President Gerald Ford walked into a press conference at the National Press Club and, using more precise, more eloquent words than legend remembers, but in no uncertain terms, told New York City…

  17. #456 Walking New York: Manhattan History on Foot with Keith Taillon

    · 59 min

    Join us for an interview with Instagram historian Keith Taillon (@keithyorkcity), whose detailed posts about New York's history have earned him nearly 60,000 followers and launched a successful tour business. Keith…

  18. #455 House of Beauty: The Story of the Frick Collection

    · 1 h 12 min

    We invite you to come with us inside one of America’s most interesting art museums – an institution that is BOTH an art gallery and a historic home. This is The Frick Collection, located at 1 East 70th Street, within…

  19. #454 Special Delivery: A History of the Post Office

    · 1 h 23 min

    The history of the United States Postal Service as it plays out in the streets of New York City -- from the first post road to the first postage stamps. From the most beautiful post office in the country to the…

  20. #453 All The Beauty In The World: Guarding the Met with Patrick Bringley

    · 59 min

    A special bonus episode! Two years ago we featured Patrick Bringley on the show, the author of All The Beauty In The World (Simon & Schuster), regarding his experiences as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of…

  21. #452 How New York Got Its Name

    · 1 h 11 min

    It's one of the most foundational questions we could ever ask on this show -- how did New York City get its name? You may know that the English conquered the Dutch settlement of New Netherland (and its port town of…

  22. #451 The New Yorker Magazine: Talk of the Town for 100 Years

    · 1 h 11 min

    The New Yorker turns one century old -- and it hasn't aged a day! The witty, cosmopolitan magazine was first published on February 21, 1925. And even though present-day issues are often quite contemporary in content,…

  23. At The Movies with Meyers and Young (Side Streets)

    · 1 h 00 min

    Greg and Tom have taken off their historian hats and have become -- movie critics? Close but not quite! This week we're giving you a 'sneak preview' of their Patreon podcast called Side Streets, a conversational show…

  24. #450 Harlem in the Jazz Age: A Renaissance in New York

    · 1 h 24 min

    This year marks the 100th anniversary of Alain Locke's classic essay "The New Negro" and the literary anthology featuring the work of Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen and other significant black…

  25. #449 Italian Harlem: New York's Forgotten Little Italy

    · 1 h 22 min

    One of America's first great Italian neighborhoods was once in East Harlem, once filled with more southern Italians than Sicily itself, a neighborhood almost entirely gone today except for a couple restaurants, a…

  26. The Return of the Waldorf Astoria (Rewind)

    · 52 min

    A star of the New York City skyline is reborn -- the Waldorf Astoria is reopening in 2025! And so we thought we'd again raise a toast to one of the world's most famous hotels, an Art Deco classic attached to the Gilded…

  27. #448 Inside the Memory Palace with Nate DiMeo

    · 59 min

    There were very few history podcasts around back in the year 2008, but the Bowery Boys Podcast was certainly here ... and so was The Memory Palace, hosted by Nate DiMeo, presenting small, often forgotten vignettes from…

  28. The World of Tiffany Glass: Lighting the Gilded Age

    · 1 h 00 min

    Just the name "Tiffany" evokes the glamour and elegance of the Gilded Age. But there is much more to the story than just the eponymous retailer who continues to sell fine jewelry and decorative objects today. In this…

  29. #447 Bob Dylan's Greenwich Village

    · 1 h 20 min

    Greenwich Village is one of America's great music capitals, an extraordinary distinction for an old neighborhood of tenements, townhouses, dive bars and a college campus. So many musical titans of jazz, folk, pop and…

  30. #446 Mr. Morgan and His Magnificent Library

    · 1 h 11 min

    Does your personal library overwhelm your home? Are there too many books in your life -- but you'll never get rid of them? Then you have a lot in common with Gilded Age mogul J.P. Morgan! Morgan was a defining figure…

  31. The Radio City Rockettes: New York's Dancing Queens (Rewind)

    · 52 min

    The Rockettes are America’s best known dance troupe — and a staple of the holiday season — but you may not know the origin of this iconic New York City symbol. For one, they’re not even from the Big Apple! Formerly…

  32. #445 The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: A Century of Cheer

    · 1 h 17 min

    What is Thanksgiving without the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? The annual march through Manhattan -- terminating at Macy's Department Store -- has delighted New Yorkers for a century and been a part of the American…

  33. #444 New York's Classic Mom-and-Pop Shops (with New York Nico)

    · 59 min

    The energy and personality of New York City runs through its local businesses -- mom-and-pop shops, independently run stores and restaurants, often family run operations. We live in a world of chain stores,…

  34. Whatever Happened to Dorothy Arnold? (Rewind)

    · 46 min

    The young socialite Dorothy Arnold seemingly led a charmed and privileged life. The niece of a Supreme Court justice, Dorothy was the belle of 1900s New York, an attractive and vibrant young woman living on the Upper…

  35. #443 Ghost Stories of the Five Boroughs

    · 1 h 24 min

    On January 1, 1898, Greater New York was formed from the union of two cities – New York and Brooklyn, along with other towns and villages of the region, creating the five boroughs we know and love today. But each of…

  36. #442 Urban Legends of New York City

    · 1 h 14 min

    New York City has its fair share of famous 'urban legends' -- persistent rumors, too good to be true, often macabre and dark. No, we're not talking about just about ghost stories. (Those arrive next episode.) We mean…

  37. #441 The Recluse of Herald Square: The Ida Wood Mystery

    · 1 h 01 min

    Ida Wood had a secret. Born Ida Mayfield in New Orleans, Ida moved to New York in the 1850s and through her marriage to Benjamin Wood, publisher of the New York Daily News, she entered society. By the 1870s, Ida’s…

  38. The Ghosty Men: Inside the Collyer Mansion (Rewind)

    · 53 min

    In 2022, Greg received a large box in the mail, containing hundreds of news clippings and documents related to the Collyer Brothers. This expanded, newly edited version of his 2019 show on the Collyer Brothers includes…

  39. #440 When Longacre Square Became Times Square

    · 1 h 04 min

    What was Times Square before the electric billboards, before the Broadway theaters and theme restaurants, before the thousands and thousands of tourists? What was Times Square before it was Times Square? Today it’s…

  40. #439 The Ticker-Tape Parade: A Very New York Celebration

    · 59 min

    In 1886, during a miles-long parade celebrating the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, office workers in lower Manhattan began heaving ticker tape out the windows, creating a magical, blizzard-like landscape. That…

  41. #438 The Ramones at CBGB: Revolution on the Bowery

    · 1 h 05 min

    One-two-three-four! The Ramones, a four-man rock band from Forest Hills, Queens, played the Bowery music club CBGB for the very first time on August 16, 1974. Not only would Joey, Johnny, Tommy and Dee Dee…

  42. The Hidden World of Gramercy Park

    · 59 min

    Carl Raymond of The Gilded Gentleman podcast and his guest Keith Taillon invite you into one of the most historically exclusive spaces in New York City -- the romantic and peaceful escape known as Gramercy Park. This…

  43. #437 Haarlem, Breukelen, Utrecht: Exploring New York's Dutch Roots

    · 1 h 27 min

    Follow along with Greg and Tom in this stand-alone travelogue episode as they visit several historic cities and towns in the Netherlands -- Utrecht, De Bilt, Breukelen and Haarlem -- wandering through cafe-filled…

  44. #436 Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: Finding Peter Stuyvesant

    · 1 h 21 min

    The name Stuyvesant can be found everywhere in New York City -- in the names of neighborhoods, apartments, parks and high schools. Peter Stuyvesant, the last director-general of New Amsterdam, is a hero to some, a…

  45. #435 Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The Radical Walloons

    · 1 h 18 min

    Our adventure in the Netherlands continues with a quest to find the Walloons, the French-speaking religious refugees who became the first settlers of New Netherland in 1624. Their descendants would last well beyond the…

  46. #434 Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: Empire of the Seas

    · 1 h 18 min

    The epic journey begins! The Bowery Boys Podcast heads to old Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, to find traces of New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement which became New York. We begin our journey at Amsterdam's…

  47. #433 New Amsterdam Man: An Interview with Russell Shorto

    · 1 h 08 min

    The Bowery Boys Podcast is going to Amsterdam and other parts of the Netherlands for a very special mini-series, marking the 400th anniversary of the Dutch first settling in North America in the region that today we…

  48. The Bowery Boys Adventures in the Netherlands TRAILER

    · 2:40

    Announcing an epic new Bowery Boys mini series -- The Bowery Boys Adventures in the Netherlands. Exploring the connections between New York City and that fascinating European country. Simply put, you don't get New…

  49. #432 The Lenape Nation: Past, Present and Future

    · 1 h 22 min

    Consider the following show an acknowledgment – of people. For the foundations of 400 years of New York City history were built upon the homeland of the Lenni-Lenape, the tribal stewards of a vast natural area…

  50. History of the New York City Subway (Rewind)

    · 1 h 33 min

    The New York City subway system turns 120 years old later this year so we thought we'd honor the world's longest subway system with a supersized overview history -- from the first renegade ride in 1904 to the belated…

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